French Breakfast

Having a little post-lunch tea. This smells lovely – a little spicy, sweet and almost honeyed. I’m really enjoying smelling it while I let it cool. There’s another note in it that I can’t quite place. Figs maybe? Don’t know. Smells good.

Okay, so I just finished a big ole Cara Cara orange so I don’t know if that will affect what I’m tasting any but maybe. The tea tastes soft, but with a hint of astringency at the end that made me happy that I decided to do 3 minutes instead of 4. The flavors are fairly faint (a trade-off that I’ll accept for the lower astringency) but they are there, subtle and pretty. Sweet, maybe a little fruity, maybe a little floral. Mostly there’s the taste of tea with pretty little puffs of something dancing over top. Then the astringency comes in a kills the pretty but fortunately it isn’t strong enough to put me off though I’m contemplating a sprinkle of sugar. Okay, out of sugar so guess I won’t give that a try.

I’m not in love with this tea because of the ending astringency – that sort of thing really gets to me – but it has potential. I should have enough in my sample for another small cup so I think I’ll give it a shot later at maybe 4mins with milk and a little sugar and see how that goes.

2.3g/6oz

This was ok. Not bad at all, especially not for a Ceylon, but not remarkable either. It is quite smooth and relatively gentle as Ceylon goes, with less of the woody drying element many have, but it doesn’t have the deep intense flavor I crave for a morning tea (it’s “too refined” for breakfast if that makes sense). I’d be more likely to appreciate it in the afternoon as a pick-me-up than first thing in the morning. It actually tastes better as it cools; I had a couple sips leftover in my second mug this morning that got nearly cold and they were actually quite tasty with a natural sweetness.

Since I ran out of Sinharaja, this tea has been my go to tea for the mornings. This is a mild, tea with no bite. It does not take milk well…so I was thrilled when my hubby gave me a $25 gift certificate to purchase tea!!! This is the BEST gift…I ordered Sinharaja and the two teas from Harney that were on my shopping list:) Florence and Vanilla Comoro

I had a feeling that I wanted straight, unadulterated tea this morning. So I rooted through the glorious Golden Moon sampler and came out with this French Breakfast. From what the packaging says, it’s an estate Ceylon, which I found quite interesting. I like Ceylon, but I usually think it’s better suited for blending instead of as a stand-alone.

The dry leaves smell like… black tea. That earthy aroma that just screams “default!” to me. They’re fairly small and wiry, so if you’re expecting a show in your teapot, don’t put this one in. This one brews up to be a very pretty red/copper color, quite typical of the Ceylon varietal but still very yummy looking. I can detect a slight sweetness in the smell, but other than that, it smells like… Ceylon. As do the wet leaves.

I have a fairly difficult time describing Ceylon. The word I usually use is “smooth.” I think if you want to start someone out on black teas and don’t know where to begin, Ceylon would be an excellent choice. It’s familiar, in that it tastes like a WAY higher quality Lipton (and I’m pretty sure their normal teabags are Ceylon dust/fannings). It’s pretty much a baseline tea. As a result, I’m never completely blown away by it – it’s not surprising, but it is comfortingly familiar. Like that old sweater you don’t wear as often, but still keep around just because on cold winter days it feels good to snuggle down with.

I actually found that when I stopped sipping the tea and went off to do something else, the flavor actually subtly expanded to include that elusive honey-like note Golden Moon describes in their tasting notes. It’s a sweetness that doesn’t usually come out particularly strong in black teas, so that was a welcome surprise.

Something like this French Breakfast would be a great daily drinker. While I definitely prefer something with a bit more complexity and oomph to it, this one is smooth and entirely sippable.

Ew not a fan of this one. Too much astringency. Left a funny taste in my mouth as well. oh well another tea down off the 12938714876723642374734873248729387429837432877 types out there heh :)

I haven’t slept at all. Just when I thought I was going to get some sleep, one of the two female test drivers in Formula 1 was in a freak accident, the car hit the transport truck while she was driving. And a witness said the helmet took the brunt of the impact, ambulance services say life-threatening injuries and I am trying to keep myself calm by drinking this but it just feels like it’s going to come back up.

I’m not really religious but if you are, please say a prayer for Maria de Villota, or at least keep her in your thoughts that she will be okay. All I can think about is how Dan Wheldon died in a freak accident last year and I’m just terrified.

The tea though, it’s helped ease things a bit. At this point it’s just something to comfort my nerves, but it’s pretty good anyway. I’ve never been much of a Ceylon fan but I could see myself drinking this every so often. Its smooth, there’s a little bit of a honey taste, but it just doesn’t stand out like other black teas do. But when you need tea for the sake of tea, this is a real winner.

We’re slowly making progress through all these samples, woo!

For a straight black tea, this is very, very light and sweet. There is some honey flavor to it, but nowhere near the flavor that I associate with the Sinharaja from Golden Moon. This one is much… well… less of everything. Less flavor, less sweet, less worth buying again, methinks.

It’s not bad, really. It’s just not… striking. And it is a bit spendy for a middle of the road tea.

Caesar gives thumbs down.

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #3: Picked at random

This is a good tea. I liked it but I also acknowledge that I’ve become a bit spoiled. If I had tasted this 6 months ago I would have assigned it 100 points and would have pledged to drink it every day. At this point, I need to start my day with a Lapsang Souchong and then move on to a nice strong black tea. This could be one of them, but it just didn’t “pop” in my mouth in the way that Keemuns, Yunnans, and Darjeelings do.

I think this is a good tea but I know my test for a great tea (for me): having a severe anxiety attack because I don’t have more in stock and feeling a need to run and order it. I won’t do that with this one but I wish it well.

Sample sipdown! (133) Smells very nice as before, sweet and mellow. Again I don’t think I’d buy it—Ceylon is a nice, smooth tea but a little boring on its own for me—but it’s a nice cup I’m having no trouble getting through. I do like how mild it is compared to other breakfast teas!

We are almost done with our samples! We have three left. I want to wait to try one for a bit.

This is very smooth. Definitely sweet with a honey like flavor. I think it makes a better afternoon tea for me. When I need some thing to wake me up with, I need a bit more bite, a tea that will insist that I perk up immediately. This is good but nothing really calling out to me.